June 22-24, Eze Castle will be exhibiting at the SIFMA Financial Services Technology Expo in New York City. We'll be in a new location this year, Booth 1861, where we'll be playing Wii, raffling off an iPad, and answering conference attendees' questions about our extensive services and solutions. This year, we're anticipating industry leaders like ourselves to delve into the newest technologies that will make life a bit easier for financial firms facing regulations in the coming months/ years. I’ve reviewed the agenda and have selected a few HOT PICKS for our devoted Hedge IT readers to check out at the event. Our HOT PICK topics for SIFMA 2010 are High Frequency Trading (HFT), Privacy Compliance, Cloud Computing, and Business Continuity Planning. Today, I'd like to discuss HFT and Privacy Compliance.

High Frequency Trading
In the last couple of years, we started hearing quite a bit of chatter about High Frequency and Algorithmic Trading. Not content to just read headlines, we set out to make them. And with that, we organized an event last year in Boston focused on High Frequency & Algorithmic Trading, where our panel of expert speakers reviewing the topics of advanced execution strategies, sponsored access, connectivity alternatives, proximity solutions and real time risk management. We delved into how to implement both a data center infrastructure and a financial ecosystem to effectively support algorithmic trading and low latency trading strategies.

Since then, Eze Castle has been interviewed several times to discuss the complex infrastructure needs to consider when implementing this kind of strategy. Before you head to SIFMA, read up on HFT in our sizeable News section on www.eci.com.

High-Performance Trading Myth Busting will examine fact vs. fiction in the world of high performance trading in today’s global financial markets with a panel of industry leaders. Topics include: Understanding “real latency”, the true impact of packet loss in HFT and the visibility you must have to optimize your environment.

Addressing Tomorrow's Trading Opportunities Today - Managing Complexity, Achieving Agility: In recent research on both quantitative and high frequency trading, Aite Group found most firms were planning a 2010 move into additional asset classes and/or new geographies. In this session several market participants will debate how technologists can be ready for the next market opportunity for their firm, while at the same time managing data and risk in increasingly fragmented markets, addressing growing regulatory reporting demands, and responding to client expectations.

Privacy Compliance

You may have already heard or read about our Privacy Compliance offering, which we originally designed with Massachusetts privacy laws in mind, as they are currently the most comprehensive and strict regulations in the country. However, the regulations affect more than just those firms who are in Massachusetts - if your fund holds MA residents' personally identifiable information, you are also required to comply. Check out this Mass High Tech article to learn more. There has been talk of regulations like this being adopted in other states, and possibly at the federal level as well --- making this a hot topic that isn't going away any time soon.

In fact, there are two panels planned at SIFMA which will focus on Business Continuity Planning and Privacy and they've made our HOT PICKS list:

Advanced Persistence Threats - Solutions for a New Battlefield: This session will deal with the very real challenges posed by the Advanced Persistent Threat. Panelists include members of the financial industry, law enforcement and the legal community. Each brings a different perspective on how to identify, combat and remediate against the APT. We’ll also discuss various tools, techniques, and practices you can employ to strengthen your organization’s security posture in an ever-changing landscape.

Coordinating BCP and Cyber Event Response: Cyber events are not only becoming more frequent but there is a growing possibility that they may disrupt business functions. When an organization must respond to an actual business disruption caused by a cyber event, Business Continuity and Cyber Security can have connecting responsibilities. This session explores the link between cyber event response and business continuity response and highlights how the business continuity and cyber security groups can collaborate to enhance the recovery process.

To review the entire agenda and plan out your time at SIFMA, please follow this link and check out the event information below. We at Eze Castle are proud and excited to be sponsoring this event again. We are confident that our solutions are aligned with these hot topics and we eagerly anticipate learning more from our peers on how to service hedge funds and alternative investment firms during this time of economic uncertainty. We look forward to reporting back to you after SIFMA with our take on the event. In the meantime, check in with Hedge IT again next Thursday for my next two HOT PICKS at SIFMA 2010: Cloud Computing and Business Continuity Planning.